CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Western Reserve Land Conservancy has unveiled new headquarters in an old farmstead, from which the growing non-profit will work to conserve and protect land throughout northern Ohio.

The $6.5 million project allowed the land conservancy to move from a strip mall in Chester Township to four beautiful acres along Chagrin River Road in Moreland Hills. The acreage is a showcase of environmental stewardship, with a green addition to the century home and landscaping that prevents storm run-off from leaving the property, said Rich Cochran, the president and CEO.

Like many homes in the Chagrin Valley, the original 5,000 square-foot house was always a work in progress. It was built in the early 1900s, Cochran said, and encompassed a schoolhouse built in 1830. The previous owner had many skills of his own, and restored it with wood from the property and the hands and eyes of a journeyman cabinet maker.

Cochran said the new 11,000-square-foot addition will be work space for 20 of the land conservancy's employees. They did not want to carve up the original building for offices. If original fixtures had to be removed, they were re-purposed whenever possible. This included exquisitely hand-made doors created by the previous owner.

The addition also carries over the rustic flavor of the original house because of massive post-and-beam joists holding up the new roof.

The house-headquarters and two other buildings sit on four parcels totaling 22 acres. The conservancy kept four acres, and deeded the other 18 over to Moreland Hills, to expand the village's Forest Ridge Preserve to 135 acres.

That's one way the organization protects land. The most common method is a conservation easement. In that case, an owner retains the property but the easement severely restricts how it can be used. Thus, prime farmland will remain that way in perpetuity, Cochran said, and cannot be developed.

The land conservancy is the amalgamation of 11 smaller groups that merged. It has protected more than 30,000 acres in the past 30 years, and only owns around 1,500 acres. Among its efforts was an instrumental role in preserving the former Orchard Hills Golf Course in Chester and turning it into a 236-acre component of the Geauga Park District.

Cochran said the conservancy's original goal was to preserve pristine, undeveloped land, but it has since expanded to protect farmland and to work with local land banks to re-purpose foreclosed and abandoned acreage in urban areas, including Cleveland.

Cochran said that developers were interested in the land now occupied by the village park and conservancy .

"At least 50 to 60 homes would have been built had we not purchased the properties," he said.

Cochran said a local couple contributed a significant portion of the money needed for the $6.5 million project.

"They wanted us to have a home," he said, but wanted to remain anonymous. Thus, he declined to identify them or the scope of their generosity except to call it "the biggest gift we've ever received.

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